GROCERY SHOPPING MAY BE CLOSE AS YOUR PHONE

When another customer phones for "a jug of wine," a clerk bags up the customer's preferred label, even though it has not been specified.

That the help knows what the customer wants is startling enough. That they deliver it to the door is surprising indeed.

Shelf-to-door delivery -- a service that our grandparents remember with nostalgia, but that most of us haven't seen in our lifetime -- is being revived. Shoppers of Woolley's, who fax as well as phone in their orders, have had the luxury for years. The loyal fans of Herberts Lafayette and Southampton Markets in Palm Beach have enjoyed the service even longer. Food delivery is one of the fast-track new services being tried by a scattered chain of food stores across the land.

Until a couple of years ago, it used to be just another luxury that separated the haves from the have-nots. But in three short years, the service has boomed fivefold. And spread well beyond the stores that cater primarily to the spoiled set. Surveys done by the Food Marketing Institute in Washington, D.C., show that in 1985, a scant 1.5 percent of the nation's supermarkets wheeled bags beyond their parking lots to the customer's door. In 1988, the figure topped 8 percent.

The incentive in the highly competitive, close-to-the-edge food game is clear and mighty: to grab a bigger bite of the market pie.

Last year, Pantry Pride became the first South Florida chain store to take it to the door.

"We thought, and I don't know how to say this," says Bob Highsmith, senior vice president for Pantry Pride, "but we thought the more affluent people would use it. Also, older people in condos close to the beach."

Pantry Pride launched the service in four of its 32 stores. The sites were chosen carefully: two in Boca Raton, on Federal Highway and on Palmetto Park Road, and two in Fort Lauderdale, on Las Olas Boulevard and on Northeast 33rd Avenue, close to Galt Ocean Mile.

"Some of the customers give you two or three orders a week," says Rick Kanafani, manager of the Las Olas store. Ironically, while couch potato shopping cuts down on impulse buying, the average phone-in order tends to be higher than that rung up by the in-store shopper. "The average is easily $50 to $100," Kanafani says, compared to less than $20 for the cash-and-carry crowd.

Not so surprising perhaps are the number of boat dwellers taking advantage of the service. Some, Kanafani says, come in, make their own selections and then have the load delivered. Others simply do it all by phone.

So far, each of the Pantry Pride trial stores is averaging 50 deliveries a week. "We expect that to double this season," says Highsmith, adding that the carry-home service may be expanded after the first of the year to Miami Beach and Key Biscayne.

It's a classic case of the giants copying the little guys. Smaller, classy independents, such as Woolley's and Herberts, have being doing for years what the big boys have just discovered. No big deal, the cachet grocers tell you. It's simply part of the personalized service they consider their hallmarks.

For stores that sell beluga caviar and vintage Dom Perignon in numbers that others sell chips and Miller Lite, maybe it is the extra mile that should be expected.

Or maybe it's that traditionalists like Pro Herbert know no other way. "It's the way my father's been doing it since 1932," says Pro Herbert Jr., president of Herberts. The elder Herbert opened his first store in Southampton, but migrated to Palm Beach, where he bought out Lafayette's in '49.

During the season, it's not at all unusual for Herberts to deliver (at a charge of $2 to $3) 100 orders a day on the island of the rich and famous. And likely as not, those orders might include such exotica as buffalo meat and truffles.

"One time, we had an order for 200 pounds of beluga caviar," says Sherry, Herbert Jr.'s wife.

A single shot wine order of $10,000 to $15,000 also is not uncommon.

"If there's anything our customer wants and we don't have it, we get it," Sherry Herbert says. "We search for meat (which is all prime and cut to order) halfway around the world."

And they send their goods at least as far.

When a rock star, one of their regulars, called to ask if they would send cranberry juice to a friend in London, they immediately obliged. The bill for two cases of juice was $30. Overnight air freight was another $160.

Cooks, maids, butlers and masters or mistresses of the manor all call, and usually ask to speak directly to Pro or Sherry. One simply calls and says to Sherry, "You know what I want, just send it."

Their gratitude for that kind of service is sometimes extravagantly expressed, as in the mink coat and $400-an-ounce bottles of perfume that have been sent to Sherry Herbert.

"These are wonderful people," she says, "generous and caring people."

But then, to build the kind of loyalty Herberts enjoys takes an extra measure of devotion as well. More than once Pro Herbert Jr. has been awakened from a sound sleep by a partying islander who has run out of spirits or finger food. (Needless to say, he gives his home phone number only to a few.)

Catering to its customers no less, Woolley's has been delivering the goods to the door since its Boca store made its debut six years ago. "We originally set it up for the elderly and the handicapped," manager Scott Woolley says. "But it seems more and more family people are taking advantage of the service."

Unlike the other stores, Woolley's delivers seven days a week, for a minimum charge of $5. It has been known to deliver as far as Marathon in the Florida Keys, but most of its business is closer to home: Boca Raton, West Palm Beach and Pompano Beach.

"We've had people call for just a pack of cigarettes," Woolley says. Or for cold cuts during a Sunday football game.

Because getting exactly what you order is crucial, Woolley's has a system of triple checks. The order is taken by one person, filled by a second and checked by a third. Every step is initialed, so if a customer complains he got a bruised apple, management knows which shopper picked the less-than- perfect fruit.

Seafood is packed in ice when it's sent out; ice cream is placed in a cooler with dry ice.

Woolley's also offers a shopping-only service. Call in your order, pick it up on the way home from work and there is no service charge. The goods are kept in the cooler until you arrive.

Occasionally, big-order customers will come to browse the splendid aisles of Herberts and Woolley's, an experience in itself. The selections they make are then delivered.

That was the routine followed by one of Woolley's customers last year. The man had bought a house in Boca Raton and was ready to lay on the finishing touches. He plopped down $10,000 for wines, liquor, foodstuffs and two wine coolers ($1,000 each). Some of it -- particularly the unique bottles of oil and vinegar -- Woolley suspects, was more for show then use.

Some of Woolley's customers call from out of state. "A woman called us at 7 this morning from Long Island," Woolley says on one recent day. She was flying in at 1, and asked that her order be delivered promptly by 2.

As far as he knows, his is the only grocery offering the fax connection.

Two things prompted the idea, he says. One, the stockbrokers and other harried business types who dash in at lunch time to order from the deli and get antsy waiting. Now they can fax their orders from their offices and the food will be waiting when they get to the store.

"The other thing," Woolley says, "(is) we sell a lot of unique, hard-to- find wines. We'll get a certain wine in, and we have certain customers we know might like it."

Instead of calling those customers or waiting for them to come into the store, Woolley can fax them the label as well as the literature on these select offerings.

The upshot for customer and grocer alike has been an enormous savings of time. "Now," Woolley says, "we spend 30 seconds to a minute on the phone (confirming the receipt of the order and delivery time), instead of several minutes going through a whole long list."

STORELESS SUPERMARKET

A supermarket without a store? It's true. No rude shoppers bumping your heels with carts, no waits at the deli counter or the check-out line, no hustling bags up and down the stairs once you get home.

The latest wrinkle in teleshopping is the storeless supermarket.

One such service is the 2-year-old Supermarket by Phone in Dania. It delivers from Pompano Beach to just south of the Broward County line. It maintains its own warehouse from which 75 percent of the orders are filled.

"All the non-perishables come from our own warehouse," says manager Jody Crane. Fresh vegetables and meats are purchased from a variety of local markets.

Shoppers receive a customer number and a catalog from which they order by code number. A computer answers their calls and records their wants.

Deliveries are made several times a week depending on where you live. "We have six delivery people," Crane says. "All are very busy."

Customers have the option of three delivery times: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2 to 5 p.m., or 5 to 8 p.m.

The delivery charge of $5 is waived for a minimum order, which ranges from $35 to $75, depending on the delivery zone.

Crane says customers are a mix: shut-ins, elderly, dual-career families, single parents and people who just hate to shop.

For a free catalog and more information, call 1-305-925-3665.

STORES THAT DELIVER

--Herberts, 155 N. County Road, Palm Beach, 655-6545. Open 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Delivers six days a week in Palm Beach, and in West Palm Beach east of Interstate 95. Orders should be in by 2 p.m. to assure same-day delivery. Delivery charge: $2 to $3.

--Woolley's Food Emporium, 120 SE First Ave., Boca Raton, 395-0901. Open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Delivers seven days a week from North Broward to all of Palm Beach County. Last delivery is 6:30 p.m. Tries to deliver within two hours of call. Delivery charge: $5 and up.